The Economics of Church
The one constant in life, after
the certainty of death, is that change will always happen. Thing will always change; babies will become
toddlers, teenager, young adults and then old adults. Eyes which could see miles away will struggle
to see up close. Speeches of wit at rapper-like
speed will slow down to slow inaudible soliloquies. Fields of seedlings will become forests of time-tested
trees; so in life, change will always come and it is most times a good thing to
embrace the change and adapt to it accordingly.
I have now become agnostic after
years of being a Christian. I was born
and raised in the Anglican Church, grew up with its norms and customs but after
several years of research and soul searching I have come to the conclusion that
whilst it did a lot of good in my early formative years, I no longer need
formal religion of any sort or the doctrines of a holy book to instruct or
guide me through my journey in life. I
am still open to the debate of the existence of the Christian God, but that is
for another day’s debate.
Because I have a fairly rich knowledge
of Christianity in Nigeria, I will limit my address and my concerns to the
churches in Nigeria. After I moved from Ibadan,
Nigeria in 2002, attending church in Wageningen, Holland felt like it was a
bible study class in comparison to my previous experiences. There were no cassocks, no choristers, no
obvious physical feeling of being in a church (in my eyes) but I thoroughly
enjoyed it. I was actively involved; my
father had given sermons, as did other members of the congregation and some
visitors. There was only one call for
offering collection and most of the congregation emptied their €1 and €2 collections
with a few €5 notes gracing the collection basket. Tea, coffee and biscuits were a routine and
if you had some Saturday night leftover homemade pastry you often thought of
church to bring it to. Such was my
experience of church until I moved to England in 2006 to start university. By that time, my journey of questioning the
essence of religion and the existence of God was in full swing. I had begun to feel and realise that some of
the things the Bible spoke negatively about were in fact the modern society we
now live in which I felt the Bible knew nothing of, but I digress.
I attended several churches in my
first few months of my stay in Bradford, England and none of them, for
different reasons, felt like church in Wageningen. I often felt I had been judged in a few of
these churches although that didn’t bother me much instead it made me critical
of the brand of “flashy Christianity” which they purported.
Fast forward to 2013 and I have
now returned to Nigeria and I am gobsmacked at the number of churches dotted around
the city of Yenagoa. In a short 3-minute
drive I can count more churches than I have fingers; but we have a bloated
population so maybe the number of churches is reflective of this population density. This is an excuse I’m lending and I’m not convinced
in the slightest.
Let me home in on the crux of the
matter. The new Nigerian society, in my
opinion, is obsessed with two things; wealth and religion, quite an oxymoron,
if you ask me, but who am I to say? After all, I am a despised unbeliever,
flirting dangerously with the gates of hell, or so they say.
If we examine the weekly church
schedules we would notice church activities for nearly 5 days a week. The Sunday service and midweek service are
staples of almost every church. Monthly
activities often include new month prayer session, end of month night vigils,
thanksgiving services, harvests, weddings, funerals, child births, child
dedications and most importantly, these days, tithes. In a 12 month period you may also encounter many
special occasions and ceremonies like visiting of bishops, archbishops,
overseers, self-styled prophets and apostles.
All of which, might I add, have one thing always on the program –
offering.
I have honoured a few invitations
to attend church and I listen out attentively, the messages always seem to be
about wealth seeking missions and a combination of overt and subtle calls for
money to God in return for blessings, life, wealth and prosperity. So I decided to do a little calculation; in a
congregation of 100 people, if there are 4 calls for offering and each member put
in N50 each per offering, after 4 rounds that’s N20,000 (just over minimum
wage) from one week’s Sunday service.
Now I know there will be costs of maintaining the church building and powering
the generators and all other operational costs but at the end of the day I
wonder where does the rest of the money go?
The pastors and preachers often have book deals, CDs, shows and other
media ventures generating their own income so I ask again, where does the money
go? I see clergymen and clergywomen
donning the latest fashion trends and telephoning through the latest Galaxy and
iPhone devices; their automobiles matched only by celebrities and government officials
(and we know we’ll reserve our comments on the latter), so please I ask, where
does the money go?
Stardom and celebrity status are
now the vogue for God’s earthly representatives. They say things like “Our Father God is a
rich God, he is a king so we are his royal princes and princesses” then I look
around the congregation and see paupers and I think to myself that the preacher
and the congregation are supposed to be children of the same God and I’m sure
he doesn’t see princes and princesses in his followers. This new fad to be a star is amusing to say
the least. Talks of wealth, mansions and
private jets are commonly associated with athletes and rockstars. High rise buildings, mansions on acres of
land and more luxurious SUVs than in a Hollywood blockbuster movie are now the
trending habits of Nigeria’s Christian leaders.
The craze for wealth is driving churches to have expensive schools and
universities on national and foreign soils amongst other money making ventures.
I can’t help but think that Jesus
Christ borrowed a donkey when he rode into Jerusalem. He didn’t seek out the best Arabian stallion
flanked by a chariot entourage and trumpeters, no... A lowly farm donkey was
what he borrowed.
The egocentricity and materialism
of modern Nigeria has a bitter taste in my mouth and I detest it. I refuse to indulge in a society that has
come to this, but, to each their own and I often remind myself judge not, lest
ye be judged.
Enjoy,
Adieu!
